It's Finally Official — Maggie Smith Returning for Season 4

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The Dowager Countess is staying put.Downton Abbey exec producer Gareth Neame confirmed to TVLine Sunday
at HBO’s post-Golden Globes bash that Maggie Smith will indeed be returning for the drama’s upcoming fourth season
Over the summer, Abbey creator Julian Fellowesadmitted that even he didn’t know if the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning
actress would be back. “I can’t tell you, ‘Oh, yes, she’s definitely contracted [for Season 4] — because she isn’t,” he said
“It’s entirely up to her when she stays and when she goes.“With Maggie, you never know,” he added. “Other [actors] sign
on for the next series and they sign for this and they sign for that, but she doesn’t. She stays her own person. But as far as
I’m concerned, I hope she stays with the show until Downton falls down.”
Smith’s decision to stick around ensures that all of the show’s major castmembers are on board for Season 4, with the exception
of Jessica Brown Findlay and Dan Stevens, whose respective characters, Sybil and Matthew, are killed off in Season 3

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Another Key ‘Downton Abbey’ Loss: Siobhan Finneran Leaving O’Brien Role

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Man, when are the Downton Abbey faithful going to catch a break? Siobhan Finneran, who plays maid O’Brien
to Elizabeth McGovern’s Lady Cora Crawley, won’t be returning to the hit period drama for Season 4. Although a
shadowy character — renown for her ability to perilously position bars of soap, smoke cigarettes ominously and
set up nocturnal visits between footmen — O’Brien has figured in many integral storylines over the past three
seasons and now becomes the third original player to depart ahead of next season. Jessica Brown Findlay, who
played the progressive Lady Sybil, and Dan Stevens, whose character was heir to the Grantham estate and the
show’s resident heartthrob, ankled over the past year as both their stars are rising in Hollywood.
A Downton source tells me O’Brien is “going off to do something else.” Unlike Findlay’s and Stevens’ characters,
she has not to been killed off, thus leaving the door open for a return. Downton‘s fourth season is currently
shooting and starts airing in the fall in the UK.

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A spokesperson for the series confirmed that Finneran, who was recently cast in the second season of BBC1
drama "The Syndicate," would not be back for the fourth season of "Downton," but it looks like O'Brien will be
spared a sudden death due to scarlet fever, as it was noted that "the door could be left open for a return."

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Carnival Films and PBS today also announced six new (and apparently much needed) cast members for the upcoming season

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Most notably, "Weekend" lead Tom Cullen will play Lord Gillingham, an old family friend
of the Crawleys who visits for a house party , who has known Lady Mary since childhood

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Opera star Dame Kiri Te Kanawa will appear as a guest who, natch, sings in the house.
Nigel Harman will play Green, a valet Dame Harriet Walter is Lady Shackleton, an old friend of the Dowager
Joanne David has a guest role as the Duchess of Yeovil and Julian Ovenden will play aristocrat Charles Blake

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and

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Shirley MacLaine, who played Cora's mother Martha Levinson in several episodes last season,
will return in the role for the fourth season finale

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+ the widow mary and her baby boy